Opening files

There are three easy ways to open a document.

Double-click a .md, .markdown, or .txt file in Finder once Markdown Peek is your default app for it.
Drag a file from Finder and drop it onto the Markdown Peek window.
Press Command-O in the app to pick a file from the open dialog.

Set Markdown Peek as your default for .md

Do this once and every Markdown file opens straight into a clean rendered page when you double-click it.

In Finder, click any .md file once to select it.
Choose File, then Get Info (or press Command-I).
Open the Open with section and choose Markdown Peek.
Click Change All, then Continue, to use it for every .md file.

You can repeat the same steps on a .markdown or .txt file to set the default for those too.

Reading long documents

Press Control-Command-S, or click the sidebar button in the toolbar, to list every heading. Click one to jump there. It appears in any document with two or more headings.
The estimated reading time sits under the window title. Click it to open Document Info.
Text stays at a comfortable reading width, like on GitHub. To fill the window, open Settings and set Text width to Full width.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	What it does
`Space`	Flip between the rendered page and the raw source
`Command-F`	Find in the document, with Command-G to step through the matches
`Control-Command-S`	Show or hide the table of contents
`Option-Command-I`	Show Document Info: words, reading time, and structure
`Command-P`	Print the document or save it as a PDF
`Command-O`	Open a file
`Command-W`	Close the window
`Command-Q`	Quit Markdown Peek

Quick Look in Finder

Markdown Peek includes a Quick Look preview. Select any Markdown file in Finder and press the spacebar to read it formatted, without opening the app. Launch Markdown Peek once after installing so macOS registers the preview.

Supported file types

.md Standard Markdown files
.markdown Markdown files using the longer extension
.txt Plain text files

Files stay current

When a file you have open changes on disk, Markdown Peek reloads it automatically and keeps your place, so you never reopen a document just to see the latest version.

Troubleshooting

Quick Look does not show the formatted preview

Open Markdown Peek once after installing, so macOS registers the Quick Look extension. If a preview still looks stale, select the file again and press the spacebar.

A file opens in another app

Set Markdown Peek as the default for that file type using the steps above, and click Change All so it applies to every file with that extension.

I want to edit the file

Markdown Peek is a viewer built for reading. Open the file in your editor of choice to make changes; Markdown Peek will pick them up automatically the next time it reloads.

Copy gives me formatted text, but I want the Markdown

Right-click the selection and choose Copy as Markdown to get the original Markdown source. Regular Copy stays formatted, for pasting into mail or a document.

The text sits in a narrow column in a wide window

That is the readable width, the same as on GitHub, so lines stay easy to follow. To use the whole window, open Settings and set Text width to Full width.

An image in the document does not appear

Images from the web are off by default for privacy. Choose Show Images in the banner at the top of the document, or turn them on in Settings. For an image stored next to the file, click the placeholder and grant access to its folder once.

Help and setup